Mourinho talks a lot about a lot of people, but I prefer to talk about facts. At Liverpool, with a squad half of the value of Chelsea, we twice knocked his Chelsea side out of the Champions League.

Later, with the most expensive squad at Real Madrid, he did nothing in the Champions League.

Now he says if there is an offer of hundreds of millions for (Eden) Hazard and Oscar, maybe he can build a strong squad to win something.

The Spaniard's comments came in response to Mourinho's assertion that the Blues underperformed last season under the stewardship of the former Liverpool manager, as reported by BBC Sport.

Despite Benitez leading Chelsea to Europa League glory and third in the Premier League, Mourinho claimed Chelsea struggled in the 2012-13 season.

The pair have never been on particularly good terms, with animosity between the two stretching back to 2005 when Benitez's Liverpool knocked Mourinho's Chelsea out of the Champions League semi-finals in controversial circumstances.

Alastair Grant

The Reds would go on to win the competition and, while Mourinho has never won the Champions League with Chelsea, he has claimed the trophy as manager of both Porto and Inter Milan.

On Wednesday Chelsea take on Paris St-Germain in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final and will look to bounce back from a disastrous 1-0 defeat to Crystal Palace in the Premier League at the weekend.

French football journalist Jonathan Johnson speculated the upcoming tie may have had something to do with Chelsea's loss at Selhurst Park:

The Blues will travel to Paris for the first leg looking to record at least a draw, knowing there is no guarantee of victory at Stamford Bridge with the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Edinson Cavani among the French side's ranks.

Benitez's Napoli side were harshly knocked out of the Champions League at the group stage back in December despite picking up 12 points. The Spaniard will expect to be rubbing shoulders with Mourinho once again in next year's tournament, with Napoli almost guaranteed a top-three spot in Serie A.